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How a 2-Person Procurement Team Saved $371K on Lab Supplies

Startup biotechs need partners that will adapt and change with them, removing bottlenecks and clearing the path to growth. A two-person procurement team supporting over 50 scientists at an advanced, nextgeneration biotech was quickly outgrowing its current lab management vendor and facing a major lab move. That’s when they turned to ZAGENO.
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Key Facts

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Client

Boston-based synthetic biology startup with several top-ten biotech and pharma customers

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Challenges

Outgrowing lab supply platform | Moving labs | Lengthy vendor addition process | Inefficient order tracking | Small operations team

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Solution

Access to ZAGENO’s lab supply marketplace and world-class customer success team

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Results

Two-person procurement team saved $371K in lab supply costs, 3,700 work hours, and improved SLAs

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Challenges

The company was facing four significant challenges in its lab supply purchasing process:

  • Skyrocketing Order Volume. Their free lab management solution was only able to handle 50% of purchasing order volume, not scalable.
  • SmartSheet Order Logging. Lab operation manager using SmartSheet to track lab supply order requests for 50+ scientists, causing errors and wasting time.
  • Vendors Not Meeting SLAs. Two-person procurement team not able to stay on top of vendors not meeting contracted delivery times and order accuracy.
  • Little Scientific Choice. Lengthy vendor addition process meant scientists order primarily from Global Distributors, forgoing competitive pricing and product choice.
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Solution

The company needed a partner who could not only handle lab supply order volume as they entered the next stage of growth, but would function as a true extension of their team, jumping in and doing what needed to be done to resolve purchasing issues, improve vendor relationships, automate the lab supply ordering process, and save time and money.

ZAGENO’s customer success team went above and beyond by:

  • Proactively updating all vendor accounts in advance of a major lab move
  • Directly addressing order issues with vendors to make sure SLAs were met
  • Ensuring all necessary information was on purchase orders, such as proper cost centers
  • Onboarding new vendors in less than one day
  • Identifying qualified product alternatives when needed
Client case - 2procurement team saved 371k

Results

From day one, ZAGENO became a true partner to the biotech, with clear results:

  • Supported record year-over-year lab supply spend increase of 87%
  • Onboarded 29 new vendors, usually within one day
  • YoY orders increased by 16%
  • YoY users increased by 53%
  • Started to tame long-tail spend, with 40% of spend coming from ZAGENO vendors
  • Saved $371K on lab supply spend in one year
  • Saved 3,700 hours, avoiding the additional expense of hiring almost 2 FTEs

Lessons learned

Partners Who Can Scale Are Crucial. Many startups opt for free or low-cost lab supply management platforms that are not equipped to handle order volume and P2P integration as the startup grows. It is crucial to identify partners who can scale accordingly and remove obstacles to growth.

White Glove Service Fills in Resource Gaps. ZAGENO’s customer success team proactively jumped in to improve every aspect of the lab supply ordering process, serving as an extension of the team, and supporting them throughout whatever sized stage they find themselves.

About ZAGENO

With over 40 million product SKUs available from more than 5,000 leading brands, ZAGENO offers the largest life sciences lab supply marketplace. Our one-stop-shop solution helps scientists, lab managers, and procurement leaders compare products across vendors, easily source product alternatives, track deliveries, and communicate order status with R&D teams in real time. ZAGENO makes online shopping for any research material convenient, efficient, and reliable.

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